Torah’s role in spiritual life has always been controversial, swinging between extremes; we’re either abusing it trying to earn right standing with God (Ro 10:3) or claiming it’s largely obsolete, fulfilled (abolished) by Christ.
The reality is the entirety of Mosaic Law, “the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones”, is so glorious unregenerate souls cannot bear to look deeply and honestly into it (2Co 3:7a); the god of this world has blinded their minds (2Co 4:4) such that they cannot yet see Christ’s glory in Torah. (2Co 3:14a)
In other words, the beauty of Torah is hidden, or veiled, to those whose hearts have not yet turned to God. (15) Once we receive Christ, Who is the perfect embodiment of Torah, as He truly is the veil or blindness is healed and this covering over our heart is taken away (16), such that we can now enjoy Christ’s glory through Torah. (14b)
Torah by itself, though it is powerless to make anyone righteous (Ro 8:3), being the ministration of condemnation, is unfathomably glorious (2Co 3:9a); God’s righteous standard is spectacular, amazing, breathtakingly desirable (Ps 119:20), more precious than gold. (Ps 19:10)
Even so, the Gospel is even more glorious than Torah. (2Co 3:10) Torah was never intended as a means of salvation; rather, in showing us how God requires us to live, Torah exposes our sin and condemns our carnal mind, revealing our desperate need of redemption. (Ga 3:24) Though Torah will become obsolete (2Co 3:11) in the new Earth, until then (Mt 5:18) it gloriously reveals the nature and character of God so we may be transformed into His likeness. (Ps 119:35)
Redemption and salvation are discovered in God’s New Covenant as He writes Torah into our hearts (He 8:10), ministering true righteousness into us, which is even more glorious than Torah alone. (2Co 3:9b) Since our unregenerate mind is enmity against God, unwilling to submit to His Law (Ro 8:7), He must supernaturally give us new minds and hearts which delight in Torah (Ro 7:22); this is the miracle of the new birth, and it is by means of Torah (1Pe 1:23), through which God saves our souls. (Ja 1:21)
Thus, the glory of the Gospel itself enhances and extends the glory of Torah by creating the practical reality of it within us (Ep 2:10); the New Covenant enables us to keep Torah in spirit and in truth, to obey it from the heart such that the righteous requirements of the law are actually fulfilled in us as we walk after the Spirit. (Ro 8:4)
God works His righteousness into us over time as the Spirit transforms us into the image of Christ through Torah (Ps 19:7a), grafting Torah into us as we behold the glory of Christ’s character and essence embodied in Torah (Ps 119:18); Torah serves as the glass or mirror reflecting God’s nature into us by the Spirit. (2Co 3:18)
If Christ were preached as He truly is, honoring the entire Torah (Mt 22:37-40), offering to save us from our tendency to violate Torah (in other words, to sin – 1Jn 3:2), by supernaturally engrafting Torah into our hearts and minds (He 10:16), transforming us so we will love His laws and meditate on them all day long (Ps 119:97), even ranking us eternally based on how we honor it all (Mt 5:19), and threatening to trample underfoot all who will not submit to Torah (Ps 119:118), who would receive Him?
As it turns out, those who will not receive this Christ, who willfully persist in despising Torah and discounting it (He 10:26-27), are indeed following another Jesus whom Paul did not preach (2Co 11:4a); they’ve received another spirit (2Co 11:4b), a seducing spirit (1Ti 4:1), not the Holy Spirit; they’re accepting another gospel (2Co 11:4c), one promising freedom from Torah rather than giving us repentance and engrafting Torah into the core our being, making it an integral part of us.
Most who think they’re safe in Christ are not (Mt 7:21-22); they’re still on the wide road to destruction (Mt 7:13-14), heedless of their fate, only in the end to hear from Christ Himself the most dreadful of all pronouncements: “I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work iniquity (practice lawlessness).” (23) Unlearned and unstable, they wrest the words of Paul, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. (2Pe 3:16)
Great balance and observation. God is the same yesterday today and forever he never changes and His standards remain firm and enduring through the testaments and time
Thank you Jack! I’m so glad you find it so.
Tim,
The [word] Torah, in your studies, what are some of the scriptures that utilize that particular [word…ie… Torah]. For me, if I use the [word] [Torah] — if reflects what JESUS perceived from the books of Moses and the Psalms and the Prophets. It is all through the gospels… JESUS shows JESUS in scripture. ie. the weightier matters of the law, if you lust upon a woman, HE IS Lord of the Sabbath and [man] was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made [for] man… ie… OK to heal on the Sabbath, not that Christianity practices much healing on the Sabbath [or that has been my experience]. Another distinction is the scripture pointing out that He speaks as One [having] [Authority]…. ie even the winds and waves [Obey] Him. Basic question, how are [you] defining [Torah] from scripture, and where do you see the [word] Torah used in scripture?
PS — agree with Jack, you have done an excellent job in parsing a meatier subject.
I would also keep in mind:
For it is a good thing that the heart be [established with grace], not with meats which have not profited those who have been occupied therewith.
and other like scriptures
Great question Stephen. Thank you for asking.
When I use the term Torah I am referring to the Mosaic Law. This is how the Hebrew word “torah”, occurring 219 times in the Tanach, is consistently translated in the KJV. The Greek “nomos” is the New Testament equivalent, occurring 194 times, translated the same way.
Some notable verses include:
Psalm 1:2 — “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”
Psalm 19:7 — “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.”
Psalm 119:34 — “Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.”
Psalm 119:53 — “Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.”
Psalm 119:97 — “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.”
Psalm 119:165 — “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.”
Isaiah 8:20 — “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”
Romans 3:31 — “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”
Romans 7:22 — “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:”
And of course: Matthew 5:17 — “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”
Jesus is the Author of Torah; it is the Law of His eternal kingdom, and He leads by example: perfectly embodying Torah in every detail and calling every one of us to do the same, to follow His steps. He never violated Torah or encouraged anyone to do so; He only violated man-made tradition, improper additions to Torah.
Grace is not leniency, absolving us of our responsibility to obey Torah; rather, it is the divine enablement writing Torah into our hearts and delivering us from our tendency to break it. This is the essence of the New Covenant, not replacing Torah but Jesus giving Himself to save us from breaking Torah by giving us new hearts which delight in Torah.
Christ will evaluate and rank each one of us in His kingdom based on how we have respected the least important laws in Torah. We will each either get an A+ or an F; there’s evidently no middle ground. But He will tread down all who despise Torah and refuse to submit to it.
I believe all shades and variations of Christianity which contradict this fundamental principle, claiming Jesus abolished Torah and freed us from our obligation to obey it, are false religions, counterfeits, darkness: there is no light in them. (Is 8:20) They are preaching a different Jesus and a different gospel, which Paul did not preach.
I welcome further discussion and look forward to it.